It’s the first-ever Running Man Championships where rivalry is serious, the tears are real, and the competition is tough. The all-day event tests their physical, mental, and psychological limits. So make sure you’re ready to go or you’ll miss your mark!

EPISODE 86. Broadcast on March 18, 2012.

Outside the SBS Center, the first-ever Running Man Championships are being held. It’s time to introduce our competitors!

It’s apparent that none of them are fully aware of what’s going on but as they arrive, their descriptions are hilarious – like about Jae-suk’s trademark tight pants (and again he wears skinny athletics), to Jong-kook’s weakness to women. And just to test it out, the female announcer asks what he thinks of her. You mean as compared to Yoon Eun-hye?

Aww… and they call Gary ‘ex-Monday Boyfriend‘?! Drive that nail into my coffin harder why don’t you. HA – and Haha’s wearing a lightning bolt tracksuit. Then there’s Ji-hyo who really looks like she rolled out of bed. Hit or miss each week, this girl.

Kwang-soo zooms in with the fastest entrance ever and I love how his hobby description is annoying the Tiger, aka Jong-kook. Adding insult to injury, the announcers praise him for winning the “Gary Knows” special… but no one cared. Poor puppy.

We’ve got two guests today! Say hello to returning guest Gaeko(Dynamic Duo) who mentions that he’s been called here on a rush. And here to light the torch is none other than Ha Ji-won (The King 2 Hearts, Secret Garden). Cue the boys go fanboy crazy. That is a legit torch and Ji-won screams as it sets ablaze. The boys may as well have hearts in their eyes as she speaks.

Time to pick teams. Mr. PD, Secret Garden was so 2011, and if Ji-won is here to promote her new drama, The King 2 Hearts, where the heck is Seung-gi?! *hides from girlfriday* Maybe that’s too much star power in one episode.

The boys get all caught up that if Ji-won accepts theme via famous Secret Garden sit-up, they’ll be on their team. Haha’s so quick on the uptake here: “Accept us as in our lips…?” Oh you wannabe playboy, you.

He goes first, and Ji-won leans in… and she pushes him down with her finger. Rejected! Pffft and that’s such a bad angle for you Gary – but Ji-won accepts him anyway. There’s hope yet for the ex-Monday Boyfriend!

Jae-suk volunteers himself while the others groan for his familiar relationship with Ji-won. And he waits expectantly with his eyes saying, ‘Come on, Ji-won! We’re friends!!’ But once she sees him sans glasses, she cowers in surprise and yelps loudly: “It’s a different person!!”

The members say that he looks like another MC, Park Myung-soo, and it takes all of Ji-won’s resolve to hold back while Yoo Myung-soo tries again, with “Sea Prince” playing in the background. His eyes are a world of a different from Binnie, but luckily for Jae-suk, she chooses him.

In the car, Jae-suk asks after how old Ji-won is. Oof, careful there – you be treading treacherous waters. But Ji-won serves him back an order of aegyo that melts the men in the car into a puddle of goo.

There’s a huge crowd waiting for our cast at the first mission location and what in the what? That’s a freakin’ bowling lane constructed on the street. Here, they need to get at least two strikes to move on. Haha is completely amazed and so am I.

Jong-kook misses the strike by two pins, so Kwang-soo revs up… and as expected gets a gutter ball. And Haha learns not to take his sweet ol’ time or the cheers for him will be drowned out by screams of Jae-suk’s arrival. Can’t compete with the nation’s MC.

Speaking of whom, Jae-suk sets himself to bowl, but it slips out of his hands. HA! Mm, it’s hard to tell whether he was trying to pull a funny or because of the awkward bowling glove. And there goes Haha again, trying to slip in his playboy antics by showing Ji-won how to bowl.

It’s the Yellow team who succeeds first (thanks to Kwang-soo’s strike) and the Blue Team follows in close succession, running a victory lap in glee.

Ji-won is so adorable. She falls to the ground after another gutter ball, letting out a cry of forlornness. The boys tease her for her comic book heroine-like reactions, like how her feet kick up in the air after Gary gets a strike for their team. And Jae-suk seals the deal calling upon the Green Grasshopper Gods.

A good ol’ game of badminton is next and after a wary start about where the serve should start, the shuttlecock gets caught at the net of rice bags. And Ji-won scoops it right up and tosses it right over (that’s still in?!). Then Haha’s plan to coax her backfires on him and Ji-won pushes it to the other side. 2:0.

The score turns to 10:6 for the Red Team, and Haha sends his other teammates away, his Haroro temper flaring through his nostrils. He gets ready to face-off the other team, but he loses the very next turn.

What do you know – Big Nose Hyung is actually good at something (Apparently, he’s the head of a badminton society)! And all is NOT well in the safari because Ji-won sends the shuttlecock flying through Kwang-soo’s legs and the giraffe gets a beatdown from his hyungs, eventually getting ushered OUT of the court.

Seeing the Red Team get along so well, the captions read how Kwang-soo wants to change teams.

Ji-won calls out “oppa,” which reddens all three faces on the Yellow Team. She serves it directly to Jong-kook and the shuttlecock hits his nose. HA – I need a gif of this. Score’s 3:6.

The “oppa” attack seriously messes with Jong-kook’s head enough that they trade him out for Kwang-soo (“I’ve never seen anyone play badminton so poorly in my life!”) The Easy Brothers bring the score back up to 9:9, and soon Kwang-soo’s sneak attack brings them one point to winning it. But Ji-won will see to that and it’s a match point tied-game at 10:10.

The Yellow Team wins it, and everyone’s already dead tired, checking the growing dark circles under their eyes and head to Myungdong.

Round 3 is a high jump where they collectively have to jump 4 meters or higher. Everyone is a bit nervous, but Jae-suk attempts his jump… and clears 1.5m. Awesome! But Gary fails to clear. Boo!

HAHAHA – I love it how Haha tries to cut in so that he can jump the 1m and Ji-hyo asks in astonishment, “Are you asking ME to jump 1.5 meters?!” I bet those chompers help in the intimidation department.

The Blue team is at a disadvantage since they’re all similar heights. They send out Gaekho who makes the height but grabs onto the bar, so no go.

1.5 meters is no big for Spartakooks and 1.4m is nothing for 190cm tall Kwang-soo. And after a close call from Suk-jin, the Yellow Team pulls ahead again.

Poor Jae-suk. The combination of anxiety of jumping and that they’ve been hauling their butts all day causes him to squirm that he has got to go. He runs and jumps… the pole shakes… but it stays. The Red Team moves on!

Ji-won asks if he’ll be okay when they’re in the car, worried that the crowd and traffic will make waiting it out unbearable. Jae-suk’s face grows pale and he struggles to speak, his mind and bladder packed. Gary: “There’s a coffee cup back here…”

He manages however to say, “Ji-won – in a worst case scenario, pretend you didn’t see anything!!” And sweetly enough, she mirrors his actions to help bear the suffering.

Back at the high jump, Haha keeps failing, calling upon his time-controlling abilities, reversing time by himself while his teammates die laughing in a corner. At least you’re giving it your baekpercent, Haha!

Ji-hyo rolls over the final 1m and to the final mission location they go.

It’s a Death Relay, as in a relay so tough that you might wanna keel over rather than run it. The first leg looks absolutely brutal as they have to run a lap around the park and then run to the 6th floor, the second to the rooftop, and finally your classic rip-each-other’s-name tag off. The catch? If the baton holder is eliminated, so is your entire team.

They’ve got varying sizes of name tags and for the Blue Team who pulls in last… you might as well have them hug YOU.

If it looks arduous, I can only imagine how difficult it is for the members… and their poor VJs. Captions: “What sin did they commit to deserve this?”

An out of breath Jae-suk arrives first and starts to search the floor for Ji-won’s name tag. She comments that she’s touched that he ran so quickly. He hunts hers down soon enough and is too tired to grab the PD’s neck when he’s told that he must accompany his team throughout the race.

As if luck was on their side, all the teams find their own name tags by chance and when Mr. PD issues the warning about elimination again, Haha hands the baton to the Ace. Smart boy.

They enter the barren 13th floor, careful to look out for the Red Team who found all of theirs first. But as they enter a narrow hallway, someone reaches over and rips off Haha’s name tag.

Aha! So the Red Team lied in wait for the other team, grasping an opportune moment to attack. The noise alerts Gary down the hall and rrriiipppp within 1 minute, two-thirds of the Blue Team are eliminated.

They use the same tactic with the Yellow Team as Jae-suk reaches for Jong-kook’s back… but he whisks around faster than lightning. Kwang-soo tells him, “We didn’t find all of our name tags yet!” It’s a smart bluff as they took their time to set up a strategy to trap the other teams.

Ji-hyo’s first to smell something fishy going on – they already found their name tags! But the others believe Sparatavatar until Gary suggests that they pull off the name tags – it wouldn’t hurt, right?

Wrong. They catch on at Jong-kook’s knee-jerk reaction to protect Kwang-soo and Jae-suk tries to usher Ji-won to the sidelines. She whines, “I can fight too!” HAHAHAHA.

After they regroup, the Yellow Team notices that Ji-won’s gone missing. She’s hiding in the room next door, wishing that she could tear their name tags from here. But just because the windows are frosted doesn’t mean that she’s invisible and Jong-kook calls out, “Look, you can see Ji-won’s red sweater from here!” Busted.

Soon Jae-suk is eliminated and the Yellow Team runs off. The ladies head upstairs, followed by Sparatavatar, while Gary searches for Suk-jin in another part of the building.

The ladies spot Sparatavatar from the other end of the room, so they slip into the hall, waiting for the boys to come to them and it’s Kwang-soo who comes through the door first.

Ji-hyo lurches forward… and Kwang-soo’s eliminated. And there in his pocket is a baton. With one fell swoop, the entire Yellow Team is out.

In good sportsmanship, Ji-hyo tries to hand over Kwang-soo’s name tag, which is when Ji-won rips Ji-hyo’s off too. Red Team for the win!

Time for the medal ceremony with the Yellow Team winning the bronze, the Blue Team with silver, and the Red Team snatch the gold.

I loved the guests and all their interactions, but my only complaint is what was the point of the 3 Olympic games, if the elimination game was winner take all. But I guess they would want the guest to feel good about winning.

It has always been like that in Running Man lol. The mini games are for fun of course. But it also determined who gets better name tags. So if you’re good at the mini games and finish first before the actual name-tag-ripping part, you get smaller name tags. If you suck and arrive last, you get huge name tags which are super easy to rip off.

i totally get you. i was especially happy that the Easy Brothers were actually good at the mini games (my jaw dropped for the longest time ever after Kwangsoo managed a strike during the bowling game!) and it was kinda sad that it didn’t add up to much (besides the name tag sizes). when it comes to hide and seek games, even with Spartakook on their team, Kwangsoo and Big Nose Hyung are just too easy as preys. better luck next time for them, i guess. FEEL-TOUCH-CROSS! hahaa 🙂

I’ve noticed for a while though that The Commander sucks at the small games – like the episode where he tried a ton of times to throw a can into a trash bin and it took Gary only one try. So the Commander does have weaknesses, and in some ways could easily lose if they do eye-hand coordination games often. But when it comes to brute strength, speed and smarts, it’s tough to win against him.

If only Big Nose Hyung and Kwangvatar had a bit little more muscles… or smarts, maybe they’d stand a better chance against the others.

3.1.1.1.2 danielkim90March 25th, 2012 at 2:55 PM

yeah I really enjoyed seeing how happy Suk Jin was when they won badminton, he was jumping for joy like a little kid.

3.1.1.1.3 ZJanuary 13th, 2013 at 12:34 AM

@Ani Actually, can-throwing and badminton seem to be The Only Two he ‘sucked’ at so far, how did you get your conclusion that he “sucks at the small games” after 86 episodes…?

LMAO! I was laughing so hard that I was literally crying. The combination of him not being able to even make the jump on top of his ridiculous time reversal act with Gaekho and Ji-Hyo cracking up too was so freaking hilarious.

she already entering 35 but why she look soo damn young..like early 20…
no one can excepe jiwon ”oppa” attack
her aegyo jjang..hope she will get married with any of her co-star * cough*hyunbin** cough*

I loved this episode… The look of confusion when it first started was priceless. I love that they never know what’s gonna to happen. But the BEST reaction was Ha Ji-won. Why can’t america reality shows be this fun. I love that it is raw and real and I love, love Haha… he’s hilarious. Thanks for the re-cap!

Be careful gummimochi… Ha Ji won’s fans are merciless. Starting with me^^. I love how literally “disarming” she is with the boys. If they want to impress her, they will have to step up their game :).
People may like SeGa or not, but at the end of the day it has become a social / cultural phenomenon that you can’t ignore: I can’t count the SeGa references of any kind in all the dramas i’m watching these days (yes, sometimes it’s an easy joke, but anyway…). Even the Taiwanese dramas pay tribute to it (Office Girls, Fondant Garden). And i’m sure than a lot of viewers are watching TK2H just because they still are in withdrawal of Gil Ra Im in SeGa.
Lee Seung Gi seems to have a packed schedule. Wasn’t he in Japan a few days ago to promote his album?

Running Man should *NEVER* have a big movie star as a guest along with another guest. Poor Gaeko, it was like he wasn’t even there! The attention was all on Ha Ji-won and I believe it’s not the first time something like this happens. If they are going to give all the air time to Ha Ji-won, why have another guest? It just sucks. I barely even saw Ji-hyo in this episode. 🙁

By the way, that badminton game was so unfair lol. Since when scooping like that is okay? Haha.

Ji-hyo could have won lol. Just like the episode with Lee Da Hae, she missed her chance!

I completely agree with you on your last point there. LOL, I understand that when there’s a big name on like Ha Ji Won, that there’s going to be special treatment and although this is probably my Ji hyo bias speaking but I hate it when the RM cast members HAVE to lose for the big name guests. It really really irks me and I understand that that’s what they’ve got to do, but I wish there wasn’t a unwritten final outcome whenever someone who’s as famous as Ha Ji Won comes on because it just, in my opinion, sucks the fun out. Not hating on Ha Ji Won though, I absolutely love her, just the system.

Actually, the big name doesn’t always have to win, and they don’t. Maybe Jihyo let her guard down? Yeah, I wanted Jihyo to win.

But yes, I do feel bad for Gaekho. He was funny in the Hip-hop episode, and it looks like he managed to get some airtime here too. Too bad he didn’t get a whole lot of airtime, but that’s what happens when you get not just a bigger star but a pretty girl as a co-guest. Sigh.

I love how the Yellow team has a theme going on for them. It’s even funnier that they’ve been given these animal personalities in the past and it all fell into place that they should be the Safari Team. XD Big Nose hyung every once in a while pulls some usefulness out of him, like his harmonica playing skills in the Nickhun/Tacyeon episode. So of course it’s about that time of the year for him to show another skill – e.g. playing badminton.

Aaaaaaaw, so no more Monday Couple? Sad day. I thought they would at least keep up the farce for Monday, since it’s not like it’s a real relationship anyways. They’ve always played it up on Mondays and on Tuesdays would act like they weren’t close. It’s one the best running jokes on the show. X/

Maybe we should get one episode where Haha can turn back time, because the dude needs his superpowers asap. XD Running Man jjang~

It was “Serengeti” in the episode, not “Safari” if you read the hangeul, the English subs, or watched the episode… ^^;; Just saying the team name was a longer harder word in English than “Safari” and shows some intelligence…

Kwangsu also seems to be getting better at these games–maybe it’s just me, but he seems to be getting it.

This was a fun episode to watch, but I found it really odd that the top action/stunt star, Ha Ji-won pretty much totally sucked at each of the three simple physical activities?! I mean, bowling, badminton and high-jump (kinda) isn’t exactly arduous. A senior citizen in decent shape could have competed here. The only ‘sport’ Ji-won was half-competent was badminton, and she had to cheat with that scooping play.

I thought she did pretty well, considering… but she used Aegyo as an attack–which worked. She also played innocent for most of the episode–which also worked. What’s best? A frontal attack, or the Columbo attack? And *cough* Who won the last round?

I think she had lots more “nunchi” than the cuts in the episode made her out to be… and I wouldn’t put down a female for using feminine charms against the males to win, as much as the males have tried to use their charms to win, but haven’t been put down for doing that.

Hey guys dont forget that the guest wins means her teammates also won. In this case hjw wins and so do jae suk and gary. You should be happy for them because they win thanks to hjw. If u love running man u should love the other mems too, not only ji hyo right?
And hjw is cute. Thats her personality, its not fake. Though im happy that she wins, I guess this ep is kinda scripted and not as intense. One of my least favorite eps, quite boring.

Yeah the end does seem scripted as it’s odd that Jihyo would left the wall when she knew she had a giant nametag on her back. But then this kind of thing happen too many times I kinda get used to it already. It’s understandable they may need to let the stars win sometimes to keep their fans happy and for them to have an enjoyable experience to come back again. At least, Ha Ji Won wasn’t annoying so I don’t feel bad seeing her win.

Awww… this was my very first RM episode, and i still love it as much as i love the other episodes. Ha Ji Won makes a great guest, but i just wished ji-hyo would’ve won although hjw is my ultimate girl crush. Any chances of having her as a guest in the future??